Mirror Image
by Candyland
Summary: [One shot] It's a day at the carnival! And Osaka just discovered the fun house mirror...


**AN: **Wow…haven't done a regular one-shot for a while, have I? Ehehe…I'm totally swearing off theme comms after I finish fanfic100, I swear. But anyway, here's the fic. I don't own Azumanga Daioh! It belongs to Kiyohiko Azuma. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is all in your head.

**Mirror Image**

"Carnival carnival carnival carnival!" Tomo crowed loudly as they sprinted past the main gate and onto the fairgrounds, where the aforementioned carnival was in full swing. She stopped and stood with her feet apart and her hands on her hips in a sort of victory pose. "I'm going to ride on everything!"

Kagura sprinted up behind her. "Not if I get there first!" She pointed past Tomo towards a sign board. "Hey, look! A map!" The two competitive souls dove past several people in the milling crowd and sprinted to the carnival map. Immediately, cries of "I wanna ride that one!" and "That one! That one!" were heard by the rest of the group, standing a little further back.

Yomi sighed with the air of one long accustomed to such behavior. "Idiots…"

Ever the peace-keeper, Chiyo-chan decided to speak up. "So where should we go first?"

Osaka raised her hand in the typical Osaka fashion. "The fun-house with all the mirrors!"

"That sounds like a good place to start," Yomi nodded before turning and stalking towards Tomo and Kagura, yelling, "Hey! We're going to the fun-house! Either get over here, or we're leaving you behind!"

"What do you think, Sakaki…san?" Chiyo trailed off, looking around for the taller girl. She spotted a shock of long black hair at a nearby game booth. "Oh! Sakaki-san! We're going to the fun-house!" The little girl frowned and tried again. "Sakaki-san!"

Sakaki-san turned around and walked back over…carrying an enormous teddy bear. The thing had to be as big as Chiyo-chan was, with a big red ribbon tied around its neck. Sakaki was completely hidden behind it; she seemed to be trembling for some reason.

"Sakaki-san?" Chiyo said slowly.

"I'm all right," Sakaki said, her muffled voice coming from behind the bear. "Let's go."

It was one of those situations where it was probably wiser not to ask too many questions. By now, Yomi had herded both Kagura and Tomo back over to the general group vicinity, and the lot of them made their way towards the fun-house. Tomo insisted on arguing with Yomi the entire way there about how much weight the carnival food would make her gain. This culminated with Yomi giving Tomo a judo chop right outside the fun-house; Tomo faceplanted.

Everyone else sweatdropped.

They made their way inside. The first stop in the fun-house was the Hall of Mirrors. The entire length of one wall was covered with all sorts of mirrors that made the passer-by look tall and skinny, short and fat, and all other varieties of odd shapes.

Chiyo stopped in front of one that made her look very long and thin and beamed at her deformed reflection. "I'm as tall as Sakaki-san!" she cheered.

Meanwhile, Osaka seemed spellbound by her reflection in the next mirror over. Her reflection was very squat and distorted. "Lookit, Chiyo-chan! There's me, 'cept I don't look like me! How d'ya think the mirror does that?"

"I think it has to do with how the light reflects back, but I'm not sure," Chiyo said.

Osaka's expression changed into that one look of hers. The eyebrows drew together and the corners of her mouth turned downward. That could only mean one thing—she was thinking. And that usually meant that she was going to say something in the true Osaka fashion.

She did not disappoint. "What if…"

"Huh?" Chiyo blinked.

"What if there's someone else on the other side of the mirror?" Osaka said, her voice rising in alarm. "And they're lookin' back through the mirror and they see me and think that I'm the weird-lookin' one?" Her eyes widened in horror. "Or what if I'm actually just their reflection? When the mirror-me moves away from the mirror, will I disappear??"

"Osaka-san…" Chiyo began to speak.

She was cut off when Osaka started waving her arms at the mirror and shouting. "Don't go, mirror-me! I don't want to disappear! I'm the real Osaka, and you're the weird one!"

By this time, Yomi had wandered back over; she stood behind Chiyo and watched as Osaka yelled at the mirror, decrying the mirror-image as a phony and a fake. "Come on, Chiyo-chan," the bespectacled girl said after a moment. "She might be at this for a while."

"Osaka-san is a very free thinker, isn't she?" Chiyo said, allowing herself to be pulled away, moving further into the fun-house.

Yomi turned a wry smile. "I suppose that's one way to put it."

* * *

**PS.** _Ya know, it sort of feels strange—I first came across Azumanga Daioh about two and a half years ago when a friend showed it to me. And it's only now, after watching it countless times, that I find plunnies for it. Usually it's either right away or nothing with me. Oh well. This was mostly for the fun mental image of Osaka freaking out over a fun-house mirror._

_I send this out with love to **RanMouri82**, who encouraged me to write more ficcage for this series and who gave me this plunnie. Much love to you, hon! Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


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